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Abstract

A thin metal film near-field superlens, as originally suggested by Pendry and realized by Fang et al. and Melville et al., is investigated with emphasis on materials suitable for integration on a lab-on-a-chip platform. A chemically resistant cyclo-olefin copolymer (COC), mr-I-T85 from microresist technology, is applied as dielectric matrix/spacer for an Ag thin film superlens. The superlens successfully resolves 80 nm half-pitch gratings when illuminated with UV radiation at a free space wavelength of 365 nm. The superlens design, fabrication and characterization is discussed.

Figures (7)

Near-field superlens design using UV-lithography readout. (a) Exposure of negative photoresist through the quartz/Cr mask and the Ag superlens of a grating pattern with period 2Λ. (b) AFM scan of the exposed and developed photoresist.

Finite-element modeling of the intensity-distribution (|E|/|E0|)2 above the superlens when illuminated through gratings of different period. To simplify the plot and ease comparison, the mr-I T85 and the silver layers are not depicted. Panels (a)–(c) are with Λ=60, 70, and 80 nm and a silver superlens film. Panel (d) is a reference with Λ=80 nm where the 35 nm Ag layer has been replaced by 35 nm of mr-I T85. Panel (e) is the intensity cross-section 15 nm into the resist as a function of the normalized position x with respect to the grating period Λ.

(a) 8×8 µm AFM scan of the recorded image of 80 nm half-pitch gratings in the mr-UVL 6000 resist. The exposure was done through the Ag superlens. (b) 8×8 µm AFM scan of the obtained image of 80 nm half-pitch gratings in the resist where the Ag layer was replaced with mr-I T85. (c) Height scan of the images (a) and (b).